With boots on the ground at every turn, Concerned Women for America (CWA) was proud to celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day with President Trump as he signed the historic Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports Executive Order. Triumphantly, the President declared “The war on women’s sports is over!” CWA will stand with him to see the promise through to full fruition.
CWA started the fight for women’s dignity earlier that day. In the morning, our CWA team, along with our Young Women for America (YWA) team, headed to Capitol Hill to proudly display our blue “Save Women’s Sports” pins around key congressional office buildings. Coalition partners joined the display to line the halls and demand an end to men in women’s sports.
We were there because, just a few doors down, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hosted a congressional briefing on “The role Congress can play in helping to safeguard [women’s opportunity in sports].” The panelists included the NCAA’s Inclusion Director and a representative from the Gender Equity Task Force. Not only did the panelists pass CWA representatives on their way in, but they also saw several attendees who sported the pins inside the meeting.
Despite the stated objective to “safeguard” women’s sports, the panel did not address the proverbial elephant in the room; current NCAA policies allow the replacing of women in athletics with men. President Trump had already issued Title IX guidance, and rumors swirled of another Executive Order coming later that day, but the tone-deaf panel ignored the moment nonetheless and rather touted the “inclusion” initiatives that had initially sparked this fire.
A concerned Senate staffer would not let them get away with it. He quickly raised his hand and asked how they justify their stated positions while female athletes under their governance feel the discrimination. The NCAA Vice President dodged the question, as they have for years.
After the NCAA meeting, we headed across town to ring in National Girls and Women in Sports Day at the White House, following the personal invitation from the President. He approached the stage triumphant, and wielding the authority of the Executive Branch, he declared, “Under the Trump Administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and girls. From now on, women sports will be only for women.” He personally thanked CWA President and CEO Penny Nance for all CWA’s work on the issue and moved to the historic desk to sign the executive order.
Before signing, he invited all the generations of female athletes attending the celebration to join him at the desk. I was honored to be among them. The symbolic moment captured the new President’s vision for women in our country; this is not a place where women are trapped by faux perception of oppression dependent on regressive wokeness, but where our leaders defend our distinct dignity and promote opportunities to thrive.
The Order clearly states:
It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.
Others appeared to fall in line almost immediately. NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a statement acknowledging the order “provides a clear, national standard.” However, his organization released a revised “Participation Policy for Transgender Student-Athletes” the next day that contradicted his original statement and the President’s order.
The revised policy did not acknowledge any distinct biological definition of woman and continued to flaunt confusing woke language about athletes’ “internal sense of their gender.” Rather than standing for women, biological reality, and common sense, as the guidance set forth by President Trump, and like Baker implied, the policy only created new loopholes for men to steal women’s opportunities by misrepresenting their sex on their birth certificates and elevating men to the status of a practice player to receive the benefits of participation on the women’s team. Despite the supremacy of the federal guidance, the NCAA also says schools are subject to local and state laws. Many states, including California, said they do not plan to comply with the President’s protections for female athletes in willful violation of federal law.
Thankfully, the Administration was not done yet. Not only did they launch investigations against schools who allowed men to hold a spot on a women’s roster, but earlier this week the Department of Education urged the NCAA and National Federation of State High Schools Associations (NFHS) to restore female athlete records, titles, awards, and recognitions that they allowed men to steal.
We were so grateful that during the ceremony the President graciously acknowledged the critical role CWA played leading up to the most momentous National Girls and Women in Sports Day yet. But we’re not done yet. As the President demands an end to the discriminatory practices that replace women in sports with men, we will continue to fight the battle until every governing body falls in line and Congress codifies these protections in federal law.